And that’s a wrap for Volume 2! I couldn’t resist the cliffhanger from the last chapter, so I powered through this one at record speed haha. It’s crazy to think that I’m already done translating an entire volume after only 5-6 weeks...but I enjoyed every bit of it ? Look forward to the next volume! I know I personally cannot wait to see what new mysteries and adventures are in store.

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

Chapter Eleven

“The community management people said they didn’t see anyone like Xiao Yu leave.”

Neither Yu Yin nor Yu Tong were able to get any rest that night. They spent the entire evening searching all over the area but were unable to find Yu. “Can you think of any other place Yu would go to?” They met up again at home in the early morning. Yu Tong said, “I still need to go to work. I’ll put Yu’s name on the search list once I get there to have some other people help keep a look out for him.” Having not slept for an entire night, he was already looking tired.

“I’ll look around nearby again. Maybe he ended up falling into a gutter or something...” Yu Yin nodded and began to evaluate how long he could ride his bike with his hand injury.

“Alright.”

After discussing a few more matters, Yu Tong changed clothes and left.

After seeing his dad out the door, Yu Yin returned to the breezy, empty bedroom and dazed off blankly for a bit. He had abruptly realised that he actually didn’t know Yu that well, as he had no idea where Yu would’ve gone.

He wasn’t sure if it had any relation with what had happened last night.

If Ye Xiao Xiang wanted to bring him away...would that mean they went to the complex Yan Si lives in?

No, Dad gave Yan Si a call ages ago. He said that the guard hadn’t let anyone in the entire night.

Think about it carefully, what other places are related to what happened last night? The complex, the water tower, the school...these are all places she’s been to before...

“That’s right! The pond!” Yu Yin suddenly thought of another place where oddities had occurred: the pond.

As soon as he realised this possibility, he hurriedly grabbed his jacket and keys and headed out. It was still early morning, not yet 6 AM. He was fine with the chilly air, but the slight fog and the grey, dusky sky made him feel uneasy.

After unlocking the motorbike, Yu Yin wrapped his injured hand around the handlebar. Immediately, he felt a burst of pain. “d.a.m.n it...” It was enough to make his mind go numb. But after securing his grip, it got a bit better; since it was somewhat numb from the pain, he wasn’t very conscious of it.

After starting the vehicle and using one hand to put on his helmet, he pressed on the gas and sped down the unpopulated road like a tornado.

He hoped that he would be able to make it in time.

He could feel the wind rush past him the whole way. By circling around some alleys to avoid cameras, Yu Yin drove through all sorts of red traffic lights at high speeds. Within the usual half an hour, he managed to arrive at the elementary school’s perimeter.

The sky was starting to lighten up. A mist had built up around the pond, making the surroundings hazy and hard to see.

“Yu?”

Yu Yin picked off his helmet and tried to shout out a bit, “Are you here?” He began to feel stabs of pain from his hand. When he looked down, he noticed that red splotches had appeared on the bandage; he had likely reopened the wound by accident while riding earlier.

It was extremely quiet. All he could hear was the breeze blowing the gra.s.s about.

“Yu!” After parking his bike, he began to stride towards the water. Although it was around the time for the sun to come out, he instead felt the temperature drop. He could feel gooseb.u.mps rising on his skin.

This wasn’t a normal feeling; at the very least, it didn’t seem the least bit normal to him.

With a hardened resolve, Yu Yin continued to part through the gra.s.s as he took his cellphone out to check the time. To his surprise, he discovered that his phone screen was completely black. There was nothing displayed, as if it had crashed. However, his phone had definitely been fine the whole time up until he had gotten here.

Restarting the phone proved to have no effect, so he gave up on it and stuffed it back into his bag before continuing his search.

For some reason, he felt like he would be able to find something here. Thus, he had absolutely no intention of stopping.

The closer he got to the water, the heavier the mist was. Although it was nearly daybreak, it felt like the surroundings were getting darker, to the point where he couldn’t even tell where he was stepping.

Then, he heard a noise from the water. It was the plip-plop sound of droplets. .h.i.tting the water’s surface, and it clearly came from next to him.

Yu Yin turned towards the sound. And what he saw nearly made his heart stop.

The person that he had searched for through the entire night was in the pond, not too far from where he stood, and already waist-deep in the dirty water.

“Stop!” He could practically hear himself snap as he lost all rationale and charged forwards. Without paying any mind to the beyond filthy water, he fell into the water with a splash.

The stench was strong, extremely strong. It was as if the pond had been filled with something stinky and filthy. The water was even sticky, making it seem more like an endless pit of mud. “Yu!” Yu Yin continued to push himself forward and grabbed onto the person that was still trying to head deeper in. “Are you crazy? Stop right there!”

What the h.e.l.l is this d.a.m.n mud pool? He felt like he was stepping on something soft and sticky. What was worse was that the entire thing was a muddy pulp, which made it feel like Yu Yin was constantly sinking. It felt like something giant was pulling his feet down from below, causing him to continuously descend lower.

Yu froze for a moment after being grabbed, but unexpectedly began struggling to break free.

“What are you doing?! Don’t you realise that if you keep going down like this, you’re a dead man? Do you want to die?!” While struggling to pull him back and spitting out mouthfuls of dirty water, he discovered that their positions had gotten worse. The water was now continuously rising, threatening to drown them at any moment. “Hurry and get up, don’t let yourself get killed by that little demon!”

Feeling both panicked and frustrated, Yu Yin gave up on worrying about accidentally hurting Yu and just used all his strength to yank him upwards. But as he was tugging, he discovered another issue—

There was a force dragging Yu towards the opposite direction as well.

Yu Yin felt chills go up his spine. He woodenly turned to look back and saw Yu’s other hand submerged in the water. And underneath the water that should’ve been to filthy to see through, he could somehow clearly see a small face.

The owner of the face had an arm extended, pulling Yu’s other hand downwards. Its deathly white face had an evil glare pointed at Yu Yin, and it bared its fangs at him like a wild animal. He could roughly read the words coming from her lips.

The face underneath the water was howling: “He’s the one that promised me!”

“He didn’t promise anything!”

historical

Yu Yin bellowed straight back at the face and pulled Yu’s other hand. “With me here, don’t even think about it!”

The face underwater contorted and the swollen face began to split. The skin began to tear apart bit by bit and gushed out blood as the separated flesh and veins drifted apart. It was a horrifying sight.

For a moment, Yu Yin was truly terrified out of his wits. However, he continued to hold onto Yu tightly, refusing to let go of the hand.

Just as the deadlock was reaching its limit, Yu suddenly turned around. His violet eyes met Yu Yin’s, and he nodded.

For some reason, Yu Yin had the feeling that Yu was saying it was okay. “You want me to let go?” He looked down at the twisted chunk of flesh. He was very afraid that the moment he let go, Yu would instantly get dragged under.

Yu blinked and nodded again.

Yu Yin couldn’t understand his intentions. However, he could see that Yu hadn’t been spirited away by the ghost; rather, he still had his own consciousness. This made him relax just a bit. “I won’t let her pull you downwards,” he said as if making a pledge. He then carefully loosened his grip slightly, but made sure to grab onto Yu’s shoulder instead just in case.

After retracting his palm, Yu turned to reach out under the water. The thing below immediately grabbed onto the hand when it approached.

The face gradually returned to its former appearance, bit by bit. The ashen eyes were locked onto the violet ones above and refused to let go, as if holding onto a floating plank.

Yu Yin nervously kept his gaze on Yu, afraid of any sudden changes in situation. As he watched Yu look down at the face underwater in earnest, he saw Yu’s lips slowly move, as if he was saying something. However, there was nothing to be heard.

Although Yu Yin wasn’t sure what Yu was repeating, he gradually figured it out from watching the shape of his mouth.

It wasn’t a complicated sentence at all. It was very short; he was just repeatedly apologising.

Yu was currently saying the same words over and over: “Sorry, but I cannot go with you yet.”

He said it for a very long time, repeating dozens and maybe even almost a hundred times. The face below the water had its gaze fixated on him as he repeated the sentence soundlessly.

As the sky slowly brightened, the pond began to reflect the light bit by bit.

Then, Yu Yin saw the small hands gradually loosen its grip. He thought that the situation might have changed, so he also slowly let go of his hold. However, he still maintained his watch on Yu’s actions.

Once they had both let go, the face below retreated. While maintaining its pose to keep staring at Yu, it gradually fell backwards to disappear under the water’s filth.

A few bubbles came upwards and broke the water’s surface.

Following that, the sky lit up brightly.

“Yu, let’s go back onto the sh.o.r.e.” After watching the water return to its undisturbed state, Yu Yin tentatively patted Yu’s shoulder. Meanwhile, he realised that at some point, their feet had stopped sinking downwards although they were still standing on top of mud.

Yu slightly turned his head to look at him, then slowly began to pull his hand out from the water.

The second a certain something surfaced, Yu Yin nearly got another heart attack.

A round thing was wrapped around his finger. The places with holes were stuffed with dirt and garbage, and decayed flesh was hanging off of it.

Even though Yu Yin didn’t have a forensic or investigation background, he could easily identify what it was...

It was a human skull.

That’s right, an entirely intact human skull.

Yu looked down at the still complete bone on his hand. A few seconds later, tears suddenly feel from his violet eyes and he began to silently cry.

Yu Yin momentarily gave up on trying to get back onto the sh.o.r.e and walked forward a few steps to wrap his arms around Yu, cradling his head as he said, “Shh, shh, it’s all over now, you’re okay.”

He truly wasn’t good at comforting others, so these were the only words he could come up with.

In his embrace, Yu was still trembling. He refused to let go of the skull in his hands, and just continuously cried.

Yu Yin gently patted his back and let out a sigh. “That day you were soaked in the elevator...did you grab onto her hands when the elevator doors opened?” He recalled the scene he had seen from his bedroom.

He could feel the person in his arms nod once.

No wonder Ye Xiao Xiang kept saying he promised.

Yu Yin raised his head to look up at the blue sky and let out another sigh, not sure whether to laugh or to cry.

After about five minutes...or maybe even ten minutes, Yu’s mood calmed down slightly and slowly backed off a bit.

His eyes were all swollen and puffed up, and his nose wasn’t any better. “Oi! Can you not silently get your snot all over me?” Yu Yin began to protest when he saw the mix of tears and snot on his clothing.

Yu rubbed his nose before quickly running to the sh.o.r.e with his head lowered to look at the skull in his hands, clearly not willing to justify the snot issue.

Yu Yin, who had been wanting to leave the filthy pool for a while now, immediately followed behind. After going back onto land, he discovered that both their clothing was completely destroyed, caked in mud and soaked in dirty water. Moreover, a bunch of thick organ filth was stuck onto them; it looked like their clothes would be impossible to clean.

“c.r.a.p, it won’t get infected by the bacteria, right...” Yu Yin shook his hand that had begun to send sharp pangs again. He had only just realised that his actions earlier had covered his entire bandage with a mud plaster.

Yu carefully approached him to examine his hand, and his usual expressionless face unexpectedly looked guilty.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just go get it disinfected at the hospital later. As for the bone in your hands, I think we have to make a trip over to Dad’s.” He was almost certain who that skull belonged to. After all, there was only one case involving a missing head. Moreover, it had followed Ye Xiao Xiang up.

Now the question is, how long would it take for us to get arrested by the police if we rode a vehicle looking like this, with someone even holding a skull?

Just as Yu Yin was debating whether to make a phone call first or not, a rustling noise suddenly came from a patch of nearby gra.s.s.

Something slowly neared them. It wasn’t a dog, but something very large.

Yu Yin guarded Yu, warily waiting for the thing to appear.

“Teacher Yu? What are you doing here?”

Qi Rui Xue appeared from the gra.s.s. She was holding what seemed like a metal rod from her car that had likely been a spare from a car repair kit. She was carrying a heavy work bag in her other hand. “Did you two fall into the pond...what are you holding?!”

Her gaze was completely drawn to the skull Yu was carrying.

“Oh, we found it in the pond.” Yu tugged at his now extremely heavy clothes as he said, “It seems like it fell in pretty recently. You can tell just from the fact that it still has some flesh on it.” The resolution was still not complete.

“Give it to me, I’ll hand it over to the police station to deal with immediately. That thing is really...” Qi Rui Xue stared at the skull with a complicated expression.

Yu took a step back with his hands wrapped protectively around the skull.

Yu narrowed his eyes at the female teacher walking over. “Give it to you, so that you can toss it in some other place?”

Qi Rui Xue froze in her tracks and looked at him blankly. “Teacher Yu, what are you saying...”

“Ye Xiao Xiang’s mother hired a private investigator to counter you, right, Teacher? Because someone told me that a private investigator was hanging around the school for a while. Moreover, Teacher seems to be just a bit too intimate with the Ye household, which makes me suspect that the private investigator was specifically looking into your relationship with Mister Ye.” From the beginning, the one having an affair hadn’t been Ye Xiao Xiang’s mother. The reason she had met up with a private investigator near the school was because her target was inside.

In addition, a teacher paying a visit to a student’s home wouldn’t typically bring her own child. Even after the death of the family’s child, the parent was still paying a visit to the teacher...

“Teacher Yu, your words completely lack any basis or evidence.” Qi Rui Xue’s expression hardened as she coldly looked at him. “I have no idea what private investigator you are talking about. If you want to falsely accuse someone of something, you at least need some evidence.”

“Why didn’t you dare to come near the pool when Zhao Liang Yi fell in?”

Yu Yin interrupted her words, his gaze unwavering. “I clearly called you, so why didn’t you come?”

“I was comforting the other two...”

“Is comforting someone more important saving a life?!” He had thought it was strange back then. Obviously the academic advisor should have come, but instead it had been someone else. “When you arrived, you realised that you would have to enter the water...I’m guessing you already knew what was in the pond, so you didn’t dare to go in. Instead, you called and asked for the Director to quickly come over while you stayed outside.”

Qi Rui Xue kept her lips pursed and remained silent.

“My conjecture is this: because the students were constantly spreading rumors about Ye Xiao Xiang’s mother, you were guarded to some degree against the private investigator’s intervention, and went to negotiate with her mother...although I’m not sure of the details afterwards, you probably lost control and killed her. At the same time, Ye Li Sheng came home, and although shocked, helped you dispose of the body. He cut off the head and told you to find a place to toss it. As an academic advisor at the elementary, you naturally knew about this pond, so it was obviously the best place to toss the remains.” Yu Yin pointed at a dent in the skull that Yu was holding. “The cause of her death wasn’t a beheading, but rather, a blunt force...even if I’m not a forensic investigator, anyone could tell that a person would never again wake from a blow that could smash the skull to that extent.”

And Ye Xiao Xiang had also been killed by a blow from a heavy object.

“...You can’t prove who this skull belongs to.” Qi Rui Xue suddenly blurted after a while.

“I can, I just have to hand it to the police to test. I can bet that this skull belongs to Ye Xiao Xiang’s mother.” Yu Yin didn’t say anything about the strange scenes he had witnessed that further proved everything linked to this point.

Qi Rui Xue fell silent again. Her grip on the rod tightened then loosened, tightened then loosened, and her expression remained ashen and expressionless. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

“Why did you kill Ye Xiao Xiang too?” He remembered that the first time he had come to this school, the voice calling “Teacher” had not actually been directed towards him, but at someone else.

Qi Rui Xue started, but still refused to speak.

“Teacher Qi...did you know that the murder weapons from both cases haven’t been found yet? They’re looking for a heavy and thick object that has some girth to it. It should be something inconspicuous that is capable of striking a fatal blow.” Yu Yin let out a breath as he looked at the person in front of him and the work bag in her hands. “I have a feeling that I’ll need to have the police test your bag. There’s a possibility that they can find blood traces and skin remains from different sources there...”

If possible, he really didn’t want to say this kind of thing himself.

Just as Yu Yin was thinking of giving her some time to consider turning herself in, Yu suddenly charged over from behind to push him aside.

A shadow smashed down in the s.p.a.ce between the two of them.

The metal rod that Qi Rui Xue had been holding earlier had nearly hit Yu Yin.

“Hand it to me! Now!” Yi Qui Xue’s eyes were wide and fixated on the skull in Yu’s hands. Her tone of voice was now vicious and emotional. “Give it to me immediately!”

“Yu, run.” Seeing her show signs of attacking, Yu Yin dropped any plans of negotiation and dragged Yu in the other direction.

Tightly gripping the skull, Yu followed behind as they broke into a frantic run.

They could hear noises behind them. It was obvious even without looking back that there was someone chasing after them.

As soon as they dashed out of the gra.s.s, Yu Yin noticed someone standing in front of them from the corner of his eye. “Behind us!” He shouted as he raced towards the person without any hesitation.

Seconds later, Qi Rui Xue leapt out as well. The person that had been standing outside immediately charged forwards to throw her down in a single movement. “Young miss, that thing in your hands is too dangerous.” As he said this, he turned her wrists to forcefully make her drop the metal rod.

Yu Yin finally stopped running and let out a breath of relief as he looked at the savior that had magically appeared. “Thanks. How did you know we were here?”

The other person smiled as he pressed down on the person in his grasp, causing her to cry out and try to kick him. “After picking up a call from your dad, I felt like something was fishy, so I went to your home. I just happened to see you ride your bike out, so I followed behind.” He frowned and after nearly getting punched, pushed Qi Rui Xue down to a kneel to prevent her from wriggling about.

“You despicable...! Why didn’t you come earlier then!” Aside from dealing with a living person, they had just gotten tangled with a dead person too!

“Student that was ganged up on, may I remind you that you were riding a small bike that could go through alleyways at high speed, while I was driving a larger car.” The savior, Yan Si, who was currently securing someone, wholeheartedly reminded him, “The fact that I was even able to follow you here was impressive enough. I’ve never been here before.” It was good enough that he had managed to help catch the person.

“Then how much do you already know?” Yu Yin huffed and gave up on arguing over the issue of different sized vehicles.

“Oh, I arrived when she walked in, so I heard everything I needed to hear.” Yan Si eyed the pocket in his jacket and gestured for him to pull something out.

Puzzled, Yu Yin reached over to fish through the pocket and pulled out a cellphone with its recording function on.

“Let go of me!” Qi Rui Xue screeched from underneath his hold. “Its all their fault! Everything is because of them! That woman threatened me with photos first. If she hadn’t used the private investigator’s photos to blackmail me, I wouldn’t have accidentally killed her! Let me go!”

Yan Si exchanged glances with the other two. They all understood clearly.

Thus, the answer to the riddle was disclosed.

***

It was a bit past 7 AM. Several police cars had arrived outside the pond near the elementary school.

“Xiao Yu, put that thing over here.” Yan Si brought a large box over and said to the person holding the skull. Only then did Yu finally let go.

“Ah Yin! You carelessly got involved again!” Yu Xia, who had come to make the arrest, punched down at his nephew’s head.

“Oi! It wasn’t me this time!” The one that had run away clearly hadn’t been him this time. Moreover, that guy had gone missing for an entire night. When Yu Yin thought about the fact that he hadn’t slept all night and had been forced to deal with both a human and a ghost, he felt that it was extremely unfair for him to get hit.

“It’s still related to you no matter what!” Yu Xia glanced over at the cuffed female teacher being escorted into the police car before shifting his gaze back. “First, get Ah Si to clean up your injury; your hand is beyond filthy.” After seeing the hand that was both bandaged and caked in mud, he didn’t continue to criticize Yu Yin.

“Oh.” Yu Yin shrugged and looked over at the person currently studying the skull, and shakily lumbered over.

The surroundings had all been blocked off with yellow tape, and several investigators were currently searching through the pond.

“Boss, this is a match.” With one hand carrying Qi Rui Xue’s bag and another carrying the test swab that had changed color, one of the examiners walked over and said, “The traces match those of the heavy object on the other body.”

“Okay, bring her back,” Yu Xia coldly ordered as he eyed Qi Rui Xue sitting in the car.

“Understood.”

Yu Yin looked at the people that had appeared outside the yellow tape around the school, and was then brought out by another police officer. Everything was going per the normal procedures.

The sky was completely bright now. It was time for cla.s.ses to start.

Yu Yin shook the mud on his hand that had been dried there for a good part of the day already as he walked forwards. He then saw a familiar face appear outside the yellow tape, and after thinking it over, headed towards the small figure. “Little cla.s.s president.” He glanced over to see the car carrying Qi Rui Xue drive away.

In a moment of neglect, he had forgotten that Qi Rui Xue and Ji You Yin always came and left school together.

The small face looked up at Yu Yin, unexpectedly void of expression. “Why did you meddle so much?”

Yu Yin was momentarily stunned, having not antic.i.p.ated this to be the opening statement.

“I heard the police say just now that you were the one who found it...why did you meddle so much?” Ji You Yin’s hands were clenched into fists as he said in a strained voice, “Ye Xiao Xiang’s dad was my dad...you guys took him, and then took my mom...why did you have to be so nosy?!” The last part was practically a shout, which even startled the investigators nearby.

Yu Yin was frozen.

“My last name is from my grandma!”

After yelling this, Ji You Yin turned and ran away so quickly that Yu Yin could not stop him in time.

One of the officers walked over and patted Yu Yin’s shoulder as if to boost his morale, and then left again.

He knew that he hadn’t done anything wrong. The one that had made a mistake wasn’t him, so he shouldn’t feel guilty...

He turned around and saw the weeds next to the pond had been split apart. Standing above the dirty water were two figures.

The blurry silhouette of Ye Xiao Xiang was holding hands with an adult woman he had only seen before in photos, who stood on the other side looking at him. She then lifted her hand and waved.

And like that, they disappeared.

The curtain had dropped. Yu Yin knew that Ye Xiao Xiang would not appear again.

“Student that was ganged up on, hurry up and get disinfected! Do you want your hand to rot off?” The person carrying a skull shouted at him from a distance.

Yu Yin took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“I’m coming!”

Epilogue

The two cases...which were actually just one case, circled around the public for many days.

It was the evening following the day that the case had been resolved. Yu Tong and Yu Xia had both managed to get off work for once, and were currently flipping through the television channels in the living room. There were two others sitting on the sofa next to them.

There were some post-dinner fruits and desserts on the living room table that Yu Xia had bought on his way back home. Half of the food had already been eaten.

After watching the news finish their report on the case, Yu Tong stood up. “Xiao Yu, could I ask you to come to my room for a minute?” He pushed his gla.s.ses up and walked back to his room first.

Yu froze, a pillow hugged in his arms.

“Dad wants to talk to you, hurry up and go,” Yu Yin whispered to him and pushed him from the side.

Yu stared at the other person for a moment before letting go of the pillow and following to enter the room.

Yu Tong’s room was always very tidy. Against one wall was a large bookshelf, as well as a reading table and a desktop computer. In addition, there was a bed and a closet. There was no -->>

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